Adaptive teaching is a concept that’s increasingly central in discussions about how schools can provide the best possible education for young people.
It’s a key section in the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework. The Education Endowment Foundation has also shared a range of perspectives and strategies on how it might support inclusion and the teaching of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). However, it’s not always a term that is well-defined or has a well-agreed definition within the sector.
We brought together teachers and school leaders to share their experiences of adaptive teaching, and the role it plays in an inclusive approach to education – from the classroom to whole-school culture.
1. It’s about looking for ways to meet the needs of all pupils
For Jade Pearce, Head of Education at Affinity Learning Partnership, adaptive teaching is “when teachers adapt their instruction and the way in which they're teaching to meet the needs of all learners.”
“It's not differentiation under a new term,” says Jade. Instead, it’s about “having the same high expectations of all learners.” With adaptive teaching, “everyone accesses the same curriculum, content and tasks”.
However, there will always be some pupils that need more specialist or targeted interventions. “It's not the big changes that we might make for pupils who are working so far below age-related expectations that they can't actually access the same content as their peers. It's the smaller changes that we make to keep the lesson flowing.”
For Ben Burrell, Vice Principal at Byron Wood Academy, understanding prior knowledge and barriers to learning are core components of adapting teaching to the needs of all pupils.
“When we're talking about adaptive teaching, we talk about the changes that teachers make to their instructional sequences to support all pupils to deepen their understanding to the maximum extent possible.”
Ben shares how part of adaptation is understanding how to respond when pupils don't have the prior knowledge required for learning new topics. This prompts staff to reflect on “How do we need to get pupils to a starting point so that they can build the models within the lesson? How do we make sure that the lesson is sequenced in an appropriate way? And how do we make sure that everyone has got the opportunity – whether or not they ultimately get there – to move from where they are now to where we would expect them to be, regardless of any barrier?”
Natasha Merola, Transition Teacher at The Milton Keynes Academy, emphasises the importance of having good mental models of pupils’ needs in her lessons: “It's regardless really of whether a student has SEND or not, which I think feeds into the idea of inclusion. It’s about recognising the diverse needs and taking them into account without compromising the curriculum and ensuring that all students have equal opportunities.
2. It helps to plan how you might adapt teaching in lessons
Anne Heavey, Director of Insights at Ambition Institute, notes how adaptive teaching “draws heavily on effective formative assessment.” Information gleaned from formative assessments enables teachers to understand prior knowledge and respond in real time, “taking those steps immediately to put the support in place, either through breaking things down, further revisiting content or scaffolding to keep the lesson moving along for all the pupils in that class.”
Teachers have a lot to juggle in class, so for Jade the key is to “get the cognitive load and the hard thinking done before the lesson.” It’s about “making sure that you've got your assessment sorted, that you know you are assessing the understanding of all pupils all the time throughout your lessons, and then planning in advance of the lesson.”
One example of how Jade encourages teachers to adapt their teaching is knowing what they’ll do if a pupil is struggling, or if they’re finding an element too easy. “I'm going to encourage teachers to think when they're planning their lessons ‘if students struggle here, what would I do with my modelling, or what would I do with my explanations?’ The same for if pupils understand the content much more easily.”
3. It’s important to be realistic about what’s achievable
In Ben’s school, educational disadvantage levels are high. “There is so much adaptation that's needed. There are so many barriers, and it's being able to be realistic about what you can affect within a lesson.
“It's constantly reflecting on those questions of how do we make sure pupils have got the best opportunity to go on and be successful when we've got significant special educational needs, low levels of English or low levels of prior knowledge.”
Anne notes that it is important schools know that adaptive teaching is not “a silver bullet that addresses all learning needs fully, particularly really complex learning needs”.
“Understanding the boundaries of where adaptive teaching is totally the right response and really effective for supporting learners that are perhaps struggling a little bit in real time is absolutely critical. But expecting adaptive teaching to be the sole or the main focus of support when you're dealing with complexity is really unfair. It creates conditions where teachers are under a lot of pressure and can't meet the needs in front of them with that toolkit.”
Instead, it’s about using what evidence-informed strategies teachers have access to, such as “formative assessment, and really being able to notice and respond in the moment to where those pupils are”, Anne adds.
4. It’s easier when adaptive teaching is a whole-school priority
Embedding an adaptive teaching approach into teachers’ practice is easier when all staff are on the same page about the impact this can have on pupil outcomes. It helps them to build a shared language that increases buy-in across the school.
“The power of consistency” says Anne, comes from making the effort “across the school body.” This means that “for the pupils, as they move from class-to-class or subject area-to-subject area, depending on the phase, that they're not having to slot back into another set of slightly different micro expectations.”
Natasha is currently doing Ambition’s Adaptive Teacher: Train the trainer programme and has found that a consistent approach has been key: “our aim is to develop that knowledge base within school around how students learn and what that looks like for all pupils.”
This is a central component of inclusion for Natasha’s school. It’s about “breaking down that barrier between teaching and learning and inclusion and threading them together.”
“So within our core steps, we've got chunking, modelling, checks for understanding – different strategies to support learning behaviours. And we've made those part of our teaching and learning policy. So whether you're a novice teacher or an experienced teacher at some point in the day those students are going to be exposed to that shared language repeated every lesson.”
5. It’s useful to take a coaching approach to professional development
Building a whole-school approach starts by “looking at how you can build adaptive teaching into what processes and vehicles you already have,” says Anne. This includes “thinking about induction for new staff, teaching assistants and teachers, making sure that really calls out how we do things around here.”
Part of this is creating a coaching culture with “the conditions for professional vulnerability, so that as a teacher you're constantly curious about how you can keep tweaking your practice.”
“Get that feedback from your colleagues, as well as through continuing professional development and the training. Getting feedback in real time through a coaching relationship, I think, is absolutely critical and powerful.”
“For a school body to have that psychological environment where teachers are thriving in that way will feed down to the pupils feeling more confident as well, and create a space where we can all think together: ‘How do we collectively have a stronger offer for all our pupils? And how can I just make those ongoing small tweaks in my provision to keep getting better?’”
Natasha echoes the importance of coaching in her own school to encourage buy-in when the introduction of new teaching practices may bring challenges.
“Staff have been through their own journey to get to where they are, and they love their job”. But, she notes, “staff may feel that it's taking away their flexibility.” So how do leaders respond to this? “It's actually just a mindset shift of communicating to them that actually, once they've got this in their repertoire and in their playbook, it will enhance their autonomy in the classroom.”
When coaching staff, Natasha encourages them to “be inspired by what the students do and don't know.” This “builds teachers’ morale once they've worked through that. And then they feel motivated that the changes are working.”
Develop together on our Adaptive Teaching programme
Watch the full discussion. Or if you’re inspired to develop your expertise in adaptive teaching, explore our Adaptive Teaching programme. You will learn how to deliver effective professional development to your teachers so they can adapt their teaching to a diverse range of pupil needs.
